Are there any "GPL enforcement trolls"?

Posted Jul 26, 2016 16:58 UTC (Tue) by pauly (subscriber, #8132)
In reply to: Are there any "GPL enforcement trolls"? by pauly
Parent article: On the boundaries of GPL enforcement

This story continues. Quite number of German universities had got that sort of cease and desist letter.
At least two cases went to court, and the universities both lost in first instance (before different local courts).
Currently, I only have this German article as a reference:
https://www.dfn.de/fileadmin/3Beratung/Recht/1infobriefea...
It basically states that SecureW2's claims were fully acknowledged by the first instance courts --
despite the fact that there is accepted evidence that SecureW2 themselves failed to provide the
source code along with the binary files for the last couple of sub-versions of their software.
I have no information on the payments that the rulings would enforce.

At least the more recent case of the two will see an appeal trial.

Martin

Are there any "GPL enforcement trolls"?

Posted Jul 29, 2016 15:12 UTC (Fri) by Wol (subscriber, #4433) [Link]

> accepted evidence that SecureW2 themselves failed to provide the
source code along with the binary files

Can't you argue that, if you distribute the program AS RECEIVED FROM THE COPYRIGHT HOLDER, then this is pretty much automatic GPL compliance?

Either that, or it's entrapment. The copyright holder is distributing an allegedly GPL'd program that cannot be further distributed at all ...

Cheers,
Wol